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Bad timing and unresolved issues were blamed Thursday for a delay in the City Council's expected adoption of lease agreements for Pre-K 4 SA's first two model centers.

The council will take up the leases at a future meeting, possibly on Dec. 6, when it reconvenes after Thanksgiving break.

The city's elected leaders were scheduled to vote on the contracts Thursday, but City Manager Sheryl Sculley asked the council to delay its action.

It had been just 10 days since voters approved the Pre-K initiative and its 1/8th-cent increase of the local sales tax, and negotiations between the city and property owners had to take a back seat to the election.

“We just finished the leases last night and want to give the City Council more time to work through them,” Sculley said Thursday.

City Attorney Michael Bernard added that some issues remain on “insurance and indemnity that are being worked through with the lawyers.”

Solidifying the leases quickly is essential, because the first two centers are scheduled to open for the 2013-14 school year. Both leases are for initial eight-year terms.

They'll be on opposite sides of town. One is slated for the Northwest Side near the Medical Center. The existing structure the city plans to lease is at 3635 Medical Drive, near Interstate 10.

That center will be in a former Southwest Airlines office retrofitted for a pre-kindergarten setting. Rent the first year will be $41,875 monthly for 30,000 square feet of space and 18 classrooms. The city has the option to expand the square footage to 50,000 and add an additional seven classrooms, increasing the monthly rent to $69,792.

The other center will be on the Southeast Side, at 2535 S.E. Military Drive, near Brooks City-Base. That model center will be built in a commercial center that includes the Mayan Palace movie theater.

In all, the city plans to operate four model centers. The second two, which will open for the 2014-15 school year, are set for the East and West sides.

Mayor Julián Castro, the driving force behind the initiative, from the dais congratulated the city for making a decision to invest “in the education of our young people,” ensuring a bright future for them.

He thanked the “broad coalition” of supporters, including H-E-B's Charles Butt and USAA's Joe Robles, the co-chairmen of his Brainpower Initiative Task Force, which recommended the city move forward on the Pre-K 4 SA initiative.

“I know that it's not easy a lot of the time for folks in the business community to step out on a limb and support something that is in the political realm,” Castro said.

Before the council could take any action implementing Pre-K 4 SA, it had to officially approve the election results.

City Clerk Leticia Vacek told the council 381,405 San Antonio residents cast ballots. That includes 16,715 who opted not to vote for or against the pre-k initiative and five others who marked more than one selection on their paper ballots.

Though there were fewer registered voters in Bexar County in the 2012 election than in 2008 — when voters approved relaxing council term limits — this year's turnout eclipsed the '08 numbers both in percentage and raw totals.

Castro said everyone knows there's no “magic bullet” to improve academic achievement here, but he believes Pre-K 4 SA will help ensure greater success in the future.

“I want to thank all San Antonians, whether they supported this or not, for considering the question and for being supportive as we move forward to ensure that this is an excellent initiative that actually delivers on what was promised,” he said. “That's the hard work we have in front of us now, and it's important work.”